6th International Symposium Oriental Studies

81 The 6 th International Symposium on Oriental Ancient Documents Studies Alla Sizova A Preliminary Study of the Tibetan Manuscript on Birchbark from the Collection of the Institute of Oriental ManuscriptsRAS Tibetan manuscript on birchbark was found among the materials of a famous historian Nikolay Petrovich Likhachyov, whose collection of Oriental books and documents was passed to the Institute of Oriental Studies (currently — the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts) from the Institute of Book, Document and Writing (former Museum of Palaeography) in 1938. However, according to the note appended to the manuscript, it seemed that it doesn’t belong to N.P. Likhachyov’s collection. The note says, that it was “acquired by I.Yu. Krachkovsky in 1943 in Moscow from the citizen Yu.M. Walther”. Writing made by other hand on this note provides information on the origin of the manuscript: it was “found in Khara-Khoto (Chinese Turkestan)”. Fate of the manuscript before its acquisition by I.Yu. Krachkovsky and reasons for placing it among the N.P. Likhachyov’s materials remain obscure. Manuscript consists of 42 folios of tiny strips of thin and fragile birchbark (length ≈ 14–18 cm, width ≈ 1.5–2 cm), each page contains from 1 to 4 lines. Text is written in silver and red ink in headless style (Tibetan dbu med) that has many common features with calligraphic style of the Buddhist manuscripts found at the Tangut city of Khara-Khoto (12–13 th cc.). The present paper will offer preliminary results on palaeographic study of the manuscript. Key words: Tibetan manuscript, Tibetan palaeography, Khara-Khoto.